Cassville’s FEMA flood damage money delayed
FEMA says hurricane relief takes priority
September 27, 2017
Charlea Estes-Jones
The money Cassville requested from FEMA for repairs related to the April 28 flooding has been delayed due to Hurricane Harvey and Irma. Steve Walensky, city administrator, made the announcement that the time frame for the city to receive that money is unknown while FEMA works out details of more severe damage in Texas and Florida.
According to Walenksy, the City of Cassville reported approximately $45,000 in damage related to the flooding on April 28 that took several days to subside.
Walenksy said the damage sustained included the park system, the Greenway Trail, as well as drainage issues on Gravel Street and other basic street repairs. The Cassville Police Department also lost a police cruiser to the flooding, which was replaced through an insurance claim.
Walensky said, “When you look at the park system and Greenway, those are some of the most obvious recovery issues that you can see. Since some of our sewer crossings got washed out, those are some of the things are putting into play with this money. We need drainage repair on various storm water and streets. We’ll also be correcting some of the bigger items in the park.”
The way to submit FEMA claims for this flood was different than when the city applied for previous flooding incidents. Walensky said, “The government rolled out a totally new automated system that allows us to input all of the project work ourselves. Before, we had an assigned project manager to help us. But they have streamlined it and given us one person to deal with. We were responsible for all of the data input and collection and it put us on a very short time frame. Once they said go, we only had a small time frame to finish it all.”
He said the city finished submitting paperwork to FEMA in early August. They were notified September 1 that the hurricane relief was taking priority over other flooding incidents.
Charlea Estes-Jones
The money Cassville requested from FEMA for repairs related to the April 28 flooding has been delayed due to Hurricane Harvey and Irma. Steve Walensky, city administrator, made the announcement that the time frame for the city to receive that money is unknown while FEMA works out details of more severe damage in Texas and Florida.
According to Walenksy, the City of Cassville reported approximately $45,000 in damage related to the flooding on April 28 that took several days to subside.
Walenksy said the damage sustained included the park system, the Greenway Trail, as well as drainage issues on Gravel Street and other basic street repairs. The Cassville Police Department also lost a police cruiser to the flooding, which was replaced through an insurance claim.
Walensky said, “When you look at the park system and Greenway, those are some of the most obvious recovery issues that you can see. Since some of our sewer crossings got washed out, those are some of the things are putting into play with this money. We need drainage repair on various storm water and streets. We’ll also be correcting some of the bigger items in the park.”
The way to submit FEMA claims for this flood was different than when the city applied for previous flooding incidents. Walensky said, “The government rolled out a totally new automated system that allows us to input all of the project work ourselves. Before, we had an assigned project manager to help us. But they have streamlined it and given us one person to deal with. We were responsible for all of the data input and collection and it put us on a very short time frame. Once they said go, we only had a small time frame to finish it all.”
He said the city finished submitting paperwork to FEMA in early August. They were notified September 1 that the hurricane relief was taking priority over other flooding incidents.